Mae West: The Most Dangerous Woman in Hollywood — Sex, Censorship, and the Star Who Redefined the Movies
About this episode
This episode explores the life and impact of Mae West on Hollywood and female sexuality during the Depression era.
Mae West shook up Depression-era Hollywood with a persona unlike anything American audiences had seen before — sexually confident, unapologetically funny, and always in control. She became one of the biggest stars in the country, only to face increasingly strict censorship from the same industry that had embraced her. This episode of WTWMI follows the rise, fall, and reinvention of Mae West — from her working-class childhood in Brooklyn and years in vaudeville to the Broadway scandals, Hollywood triumphs, censorship battles, and late-career returns that made her an American institution. It traces the creation of her famous persona through Sex , The Drag , and Diamond Lil, her arrest and jail sentence, her arrival at Paramount, and the enormous success of She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel . It also follows her battles with Joseph Breen and the Production Code, the radio performance that got her banned from NBC, her years away from Hollywood, and her later appearances in Myra Breckinridge and Sextette . This is the story of the woman who wrote herself into stardom, turned innuendo into an art form and a business, and redefined what female sexuality could look like on the American…
More episodes of When They Were Making It
- Charlie Chaplin, Part 2: The War Against Charlie Chaplin — Private Scandals, Political Persecution, and American Exile
- Charlie Chaplin, Part 1: The World's Greatest Comedian and the Darker Life Behind Him — Victorian Poverty, Silent Superstardom, and Troubling Relationships
- Shirley Temple: Hollywood's Most Famous Child Star — Depression-Era Stardom, the Studio System, and an Extraordinary Second Act
- Dorothy Dandridge, Part 2: Hollywood's First Black Leading Lady — Island in the Sun, Porgy and Bess, and the Promise Hollywood Couldn't Keep
- Dorothy Dandridge, Part 1: A Star of Her Own Making — Baptism by Show Business, Carmen Jones, and a Historic Oscar Nomination
- Sunset Boulevard (1950): Hollywood's Autopsy — Billy Wilder, Gloria Swanson, and the Film That Shook an Industry
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the When They Were Making It podcast page.